Twitter is now called X: What’s behind it?

As of 5:03 p.m| Reading time: 3 minutes

Twitter owner Elon Musk has quietly dissolved the company behind the short message service. Instead, Twitter will be fully absorbed into a new holding company called X Corp. The change of name became public when, in court proceedings against Twitter, the lawyers for the social network stated without further ado that the previous “Twitter Incorporated” no longer existed.

“We hereby notify that Twitter, Inc. has been merged with X Corp and no longer exists. X Corp is a privately held company.” is in the court documents. The amendment was filed back in March, the relevant Holding X Corp was registered on March 9, 2023, and the court document is dated April 4, 2023.

Im Imprint on the Twitter homepage however, Twitter Inc. is still given. In Europe, the site is still registered with the international subsidiary Twitter International Unlimited in Dublin. So the change doesn’t seem to be quite perfect yet.

Elon Musk has publicly mused several times in the past that buying Twitter could just be part of a larger strategy. In the future, the social network could become an “everything app”, i.e. a universal application such as that created by the Chinese company Tencent with Wechat. In addition to serving as a social network, Wechat can also be used for video conferencing, gaming, photo and video sharing, online shopping and banking.

Musk could be planning a similar multi-function app for Western customers – changing the company’s name to X Corp would be a first step. In addition, X Corp is based in Nevada – and not in California, like Twitter Inc. beforehand. Whether Musk can continue to rely on courts and political decision-makers in the conservative state of Nevada in future legal disputes relating to employee rights, where he has invested billions in his Tesla -Giga factories has more influence than in the traditionally more left-leaning California remains to be seen.

Musk’s free handling of the Twitter brand

Twitter is currently involved in several lawsuits, including with the former management team for unpaid bills, in India for violating censorship laws and in Germany the Federal Ministry of Justice has initiated fine proceedings for violating the Network Enforcement Act. X Corp would be the assignee in all proceedings. However, it is questionable whether a revaluation of sales, for example, will take place in the future. In many proceedings, the determination of the possible fine framework is based on the historical company turnover.

In any case, Musk can now use the Twitter brand name more freely since it is no longer part of the company. Before Easter, he happily announced that he would change the name on the company sign at the headquarters in San Francisco to “Titter” (German: giggle).

Musk did this primarily to get a smack on the building’s landlord, who is currently suing Musk’s company over unpaid bills. Laut „Business Insider“ Musk had a good $136,260 in rent arrears in December and January alone. When the landlord then insisted on the correct company name on the sign on the building, Musk had the “W” painted over in Twitter.

The company logo is no longer sacrosanct: Musk had the head of the internet meme dog “Shiba Inu” on the Twitter homepage instead of the blue bird at the beginning of April – in allusion to the digital currency “Dogecoin”, which was based solely on the statements Musks has gone through several course capers in the past.

It remains to be seen whether Musk will rebrand other companies in his empire under the X Corp Holding. However, the shareholders are likely to observe the activities of the Tesla boss with distrust.

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